Sometimes you go back a look at a character you’ve looked at before because you’ve noticed something new about the character. And sometimes you have to go back because the character has changed. Yo…
Nov 7, 2022 • Subscribe
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Character Analysis: Shinji Ikari
It’s easy to dislike poor Shinji. He’s passive and males are supposed to be aggressive. He’s supposed to love Rei but he’s fascinated with Asuka. He’s supposed to…
Character Analysis: Yui Ikari
Happy holidays to everyone who is celebrating a holiday anywhere. May the season be kind to you. Certain storytelling techniques absolutely fascinate me. One is meta, the use…
Character (Re)analysis: Rei Ayanami
Happy holidays to all of you who recently celebrated, are celebrating, or will soon celebrate a holiday. It’s that time of year! One of the saddest (for me)…
Character Analysis: Re-L Mayer
Ergo Proxy is one of those things you can stare at for a long time. It’s deeply grounded in philosophy and puts together a look and sound that…
Character (Re)analysis: Haruhi Suzumiya
It’s been a while since I wrote about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but what astonishes me about it is that every time you think about it, you…
Character (Re)Analysis: Tohru Honda
This may be the shortest time ever between me analyzing a character and then coming back to look at them again. I mean, it’s not like I got…
Penny Parker and Shinji Ikari from Evangelion are the same character
Penny Parker and Shinji Ikari are the same person. After watching this video, you'll be able to make your own judgment about the matter! Script from the actual video…
Shinseiki Evangelion: Ikari Shinji Ikusei Keikaku (Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project)
This is a really bizarre alternate take on Neon Genesis Evangelion. The manga itself really isn’t bizarre at all, rather it’s incredibly generic. But that itself makes the…
Frieren, Ikari Shinji, and Lost Love
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is simply one of the finest fantasy series I’ve ever seen, on par with Witch Hat Atelier. From its premise, to its intriguing world-building,…
Character (Re)analysis: Asuka Langley Soryu
My original character analysis of Asuka Langley Soryu is the most read post in the history of this blog. This doesn’t especially surprise me. For one thing, it’s…
Is Shinji Ikari really an anti-hero?
This is the third time I’ve started this post, and each time, I’m not sure where to start. So I’m going to start at the end: I don’t…
Fanart Friday: Shinji Ikari and the “Robot”
Oh my! Check out the scale of Unit-01 in this incredible illustration—as well as the symbolism in Shinji looking over his shoulder at it. Stunning! ★ 【shie】 「…
Character Analysis: Kino
I liked Kino’s Journey even though the main character, Kino their own self, was so … well … neutral is the best way I can describe them, that…
Character Analysis: Frieren
There are some things to like about Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and some things not to like. For instance, after a couple good ideas the plot jumps the…
Character Analysis: Roanapur
It seems a little odd to describe a locale or setting as a character. I mean, in college, it could get your paper marked “-5 Anthropomorphism” or something…
Character Analysis: Legoshi
Whoever dreamed up Beastars dreamed up something that is like the perfect storytelling cookbook. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “No conflict, no drama.” (George Bernard Shaw)…
Character Analysis: Ritsuko
One of the ways you can tell what the target audience for some media message is is to look at the main character. Right? As a rule one…
Character Analysis: Fushi
Look, there’s a lot to like about Yoshitoki Oima’s work. Don’t just take my word for it. Take a look at her list of awards. They include an…
Introducing Character Analysis
Welcome to the Character Analysis category, where we take a deeper look at some of the most compelling and complex characters in anime! In this section, I’ll explore…
Character Analysis: Edward
Sometimes when you’re just walking around thinking about nothing you think of something. Like, I mean, think about Ed from Cowboy Bebop, right? What a great character! Why…
Shinji Ikari is a giant cockroach. Where Evangelion and Franz Kafka meet.
Way back when in the old days, I wrote a series of analyses where I tried to group mecha pilots into two categories based on how they interact…
Character Analysis: Misaki Nakahara
Welcome to the NHK is a classic, and it’s a classic for a couple reasons, I suspect. One, I’d guess, is the love story between Tatsuhiro and Misaki,…
Character Analysis: Chise Hatori
I enjoyed The Ancient Magus’ Bride until Kore Yamazaki decided to change the direction of the story by sending Chise to college. Now I still like it: I…
Character Analysis: Sawa Nakamura
Flower of Evil is one of those things that when I read a summary of the manga I said, “I got to get me some of that.” Now,…
Character Analysis: Yasu Takagi
Nana’s one of those things that just about everyone knows about and has an opinion about. Since it’s supposed to be the best-selling shojo title in history (yeah,…
Character Analysis: Yui Hirasawa
My writer friend Kate (look, she’s a girl and a friend but she’s not a girlfriend) declared a comic book and comic book movie weekend. The object is…
Character Analysis: Toshiko Tamura
Okay, yeah, I know you never heard of Toshiko Tamura. Let me lay down some backbeat here. If you ain’t heard of Osamu Tezuka, you’re probably reading the…
Character Analysis: Hayase Nagatoro
Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro is one of those things that I wouldn’t ordinarily bother to write about. I mean, it’s an older, smuttier version of Teasing-Master…
Character Analysis: Gene Starwind
You know, there are characters that are hard to figure out, and you can stare at the screen for hour and hours saying, “Wow. This is working and…
Character Analysis: Haruko Haruhara
Haruko from FLCL is another character who is really easy to analyze. She’s a Look at Me woman. Boop. That’s it. That doesn’t make her a bad character,…
Character Analysis: Asako Yaeshima
Sweat and Soap is one of those things that when you describe it to someone sounds either sickly sweet or more than a little creepy. I mean, it’s…
Character Analysis: Marin Kitagawa
All right, you know who Marin Kitagawa is. She’s – depending on how you look at it – the Dress-up Darling of My Dress-up Darling. You can fight…
Character Analysis: Faye Valentine
I have said before and will say again that Shinichiro Watanabe treats his female characters more fairly than just about any director either of us can name. Well,…
Character Analysis: Angela Carpenter
One of the cool things about Carole and Tuesday is that the three major characters are all tropes. So are a whole bunch of the others; it’s almost…
Character Analysis: Fuu Kasumi
I have said it before and I will say it again: one of the things I like about Shinichiro Watanabe’s work is that he treats female characters with…
Character Analysis: Ai Hoshino
There are a couple stories where a character who is the real driving force in the plot is behind the scenes for most or all of the series.…
Character Analysis: Akira Fudo
Devilman Crybaby is one of those things a lot of people like. I should like it, too, because it’s for grown-ups. I mean, it’s explicit in its explicitness,…
Character Analysis: Hotori Arashiyama
And Yet the Town Moves is one of those silly little slice of lifers built around a slice of the life of Hotori Arashiyama, and her friends, family,…
Character Analysis: Ringo Oginome
You may or may not like Penguindrum – it’s certainly weird, that’s for sure – but as I watched it I was struck by how many characters with…
Character Analysis: Tsukimi Kurashita
Princess Jellyfish is one of those things that’s just so cleverly constructed that you have to wonder whether it was planned or it just worked out that way,…
Character Analysis: Usagi Tsukino
Yeah, it’s taken me a long time to get to Sailor Moon. There are a couple reasons for that. I’m overage … I don’t have time enough left…
Character Analysis: Kaguya Shinomiya
Kaguya-sama Love is War is one of those shows that knows what it is and isn’t any more than that. Dude it’s a rom-com, with emphasis on the…
Haruhi Suzumiya Character Analysis
A character study for the infamous and eccentric Haruhi Suzumiya.
Character Analysis: Lisa Mishima
I’ve generally liked the way Shinichiro Watanabe handles female characters. He seems to find a way to avoid simple tropes. Cowboy Bebop: Faye Valentine is seriously hot but…
Character Analysis: Takeo Goda
If you look at My Love Story!!, the first temptation is to look at the main characters, Takeo Goda and Rinko Yamato, as a pair. For instance, she…
Character Analysis: Kanna Kamui
Look, as cute as it is, there’s a fundamental problem with Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. Put simply, Tohru and Kobayashi form a complementary pair of characters that’s too…
Character Analysis: Eikichi Onizuka
I tell you no lies: I was watching Great Teacher Onizuka on a relatively unknown streaming service when it dropped on a much larger and more famous service.…
Character Analysis: Haruko Haruhara
Warning: This post contains spoilers for FLCL: Grunge and FLCL: Shoegaze. If you haven’t seen them, read on at your own peril. The advent of two more seasons…
Character Analysis: Shoko Komi
In certain ways Shoko Komi – yes, she of Komi Can’t Communicate – is another of the easiest characters in anime to figure out, and it’s because of…
Character Analysis: Honey Kisaragi
Let’s start with this: Honey Kisaragi, the android star of Cutie Honey, is an artifact of her age. She was born back in ’73. That was a turbulent…